THE day (and touristy outings in London!)

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin the story of my interview:

DAY ONE

As far as travelling goes, I was not lucky. Due to a "fatality" at Woking, my train was delayed and then my tube train was delayed as someone pulled the emergency alarm at Sloane Square. Then, I got thoroughly lost on the way to my hostel, despite having looked up the directions - I turned the wrong way out of the tube station!! Oh dear.
Anyway, once I got to my hostel, I found I had the room to myself and set about unpacking as my as I could do whilst still keeping everything in my little locker.
In the evening I changed in to my Mickey Mouse t-shirt for the meal and made my way via Embankment Station, to the TGIs in Covent Garden.
TGI is yummy. Our server, whose name I don't know, was awesome and deserved a medal for getting everything right and keeping smiling! Louisa Gibbs (from WDWIP) also deserves a medal for organising the meal and sorting out all of the money etc. The meal was great cos we got to put names to faces that we'd met on the forums and generally chat to lots of people. There were people who'd had their interview the day before, randomers who had done things like the summer program and then us who had a Friday interview.
I was back at the hostel by half 10 and found I had a roommate. She finally got in at midnight but there was no way I could sleep anyway so it didn't really matter.

DAY TWO - INTERVIEW

Got up at 6am! Not good. Woke up my roommate when my alarm went off twice at 6 and 6.05. Ooops. I must say though, I did feel very swanky in my interview clothes on the tube with all of the business people. Thankfully it was only a two-stop trip on the Underground, so the fact that I then went to the wrong reception desk at the Disney building didn't matter so much!
They had a little camera mounted on a pole that took our photos "for security reasons" at the reception desk when we signed in! Anyway, we were taken upstairs and had to fill in some forms (that to be honest they could have sent us in the post and saved us an hour up there!). Then came the presentation and we were introduced to our interviewer Roger, who was giving it. People got prizes for answering questions and even for asking them afterwards! Then the times for our actual f2fs were read out. The first one was at 10am, mine was at 2.30pm!
I went to McDonalds with a girl who I had only just met; Michelle (Pender). There wasn't really a lot for us to do though and we went back to the Disney building pretty soon afterwards. After that, the
w a i t i n g xx b e g a n!!!!!!
I was fine until it got to around 2.15pm, then I got nervous. Also, the person who I thought I was going to have my interview with; Laura (from WDWIP) wasn't with me in the end. I went in with a girl called Gemma who had done the programme before and so Roger seemed to focus on her more than me....
It was over so very quickly that I couldn't believe it! I was calm mainly I think because I had downed quite a lot of Bach's Rescue Remedy throughout the day. I was asked 'Why do you want to work for Disney?' 'How will you cope with the heat?' 'What is your work experience?' 'What do you like to do in your free time?'. Then it was over. Just like that. I was a bit disappointed really as I'd been expecting a lot more - other people agree that it was a bit of a let down too.
Oh well. There was nothing else to do except enjoy the rest of our time in London, which is exactly what me and Michelle (Park) set out to do! We said goodbye to everyone and went to our respective accomadations to get changed. Then we met back at Hammersmith station to do some exploring! I'd also got to see another new roommate who was from Perth. I never found out her name, but she was very friendly and we chatted a lot. I wish her lots of luck with her new flat and lots of peace and enjoyment now that she's no longer living out of a rucksack!
Michelle and I visited; Big Ben, the London Eye, Harrods and Oxford Street, taking full advantage of Zones 1 and 2 on our travel cards! It was incredable fun and Michelle deserves special recognition for having the audacity to apply for a Harrods Loyalty Card (despite living in Preston!)
So that night I was very happy but quite sleepy when I got back to the hostel. I spent a long while chatting to the Aussie girl who was SO friendly and told me that I deserved to get on the CRP because I had a great British accent! Slept well that night, that's for sure and did a lot of my packing before I turned in.

DAY THREE

Check out day! Had breakfast at the hostel and then checked out. Stored my bag at the hostel and then took a couple of hours to go and visit St Paul's Cathedral. Except, "due to scheduled engineering works on the Central line, no services will operate to or from St Pauls"! So I did a bit of a walking tour all the way from Chancery Lane to Bank! Oh well, walking does you good.
St Paul's was amazing to look at as well. Then I got to see lots of other cool buildings, which to be honest I can't remember the name of!
After that, I headed back to the hostel to collect my bag and took my last tube journey: to Waterloo. I lunched at Burger King at Waterloo and then hopped on the train back to Southampton - I was back by 2pm. The first thing I thought? Soton is so cold! Sarah says that's because there is no polution!

So, that's my account of my trip up to London for the f2f. Now we have to play that all too familiar game - the Waiting Game! Now I need to throw myself back in to my lovely studies, especially to catch up with what I had to miss in order to go to London! We now have 3 to 4 weeks to wait until we find out if we were successful or not! Scary!
And so to end: The thought for the Day is "Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a Mouse!"

The interview draws closer!!!

That's right! The interview is FOUR days away and as yet I am only marginally worried!! Hmmm is there something wrong with me I wonder, not being worried yet? Then again I wasn't nervous about the phone interview until a few hours before.

Right, news:

Uni is really hard, but I'm getting through it somehow - largely because I haven't done a lot of the reading!! That's because I'm missing lectures this week and because when I fused some ribs and vertebrae in my back last week, I couldn't actually go anywhere! Take my advice - don't ever fuse vertebrae and ribs, it hurts, you can't get comfortable or sleep and laying around for a week is boring! I have no idea how I managed it for a whole summer...
I have to give a presentation tomorrow on the problem of depopulation in interwar France - not exactly the highlight of my week to be honest. Oh well, needs must for the sake of my degree and (I've become very excited about this recently!) GRADUATION!
Then again I'm also very excited about Christmas, but that's allowed right?? I say it is because this IS the Christmas term AND (very importantly!) the Disney Shop have their Christmas stuff in already!!

Worship Central is Wednesday night and High School Musical 3 comes out this week at the cinemas - we are organising a girly trip to see it - its going to be awesome!!! Plus, you know I mentioned the Disney Store? Well I bought the book of the film in there yesterday!! Well exciting :-)

And So To The INTERVIEWWWWWW!

The plan is this: travel to London to arrive before midday. Check in to my hostel (Globetrotter Inn) and then set out to explore the route I'll need to take both to the interview and to the meal at TGI (Covent Garden) that night.
It is a brilliant idea to meet up with the people who you'll be interviewing with because it means there is one less scary and new thing to deal with on the day of the interview! It also means that the recruiters will look at you and see you being calm, collected and chatty and think 'Yes, I'll employ her.' (We hope!!!)
So I'm aiming to get to the interview venue for 8.15am at the latest and meet up with some other peeps. The presentation starts at 9am so its going to be a pretty full on day methinks.
BUT we're going to be with actual Disney recruiters, at the actual Disney HQ in London!!
I'm expecting my interview will be quite late as I haven't had to come as far as other people (some guys I know are coming from Scotland and the North - as far as that is concerned they're flying or getting the Megabus/train - so shop around for the cheapest way to travel to the interview).
I'm booked to stay overnight that night at the Globetrotter, so after the interview I can go back there and change and then go home the next day. I could possibly see something of London or do a show. If you have the time when you're there, do see a bit more of London, especially if you'll not be back there again soon.

The thing that has been going round and round and round in my head is what answer can I give to THE question: 'Why do you want to work for Disney?'. I just can't decide on how best to approach it cos there's so much I want to say.
One tip for both the phone and f2f interviews is to get to the point and not to waffle. So I think I'm going to go for buzzwords like passion, people, dreams, experience....
The other questions I think I can better come up with answers on the spot:
o Tell us about your home town
o Describe your current job
o How will you deal with living with randomers from several countries
o How will you cope with the heat
o etc etc etc
All I need to hope is that they don't throw in a curve ball question, like in my phone interview when I wasn't prepared for, but got asked about a typical day at my job.

On the plus side my outfit is ready, my photocopying is done, now I just need to get out some cash and finalise my exact travel plans. Another tip from me, especially if you - like me - are unfamilliar with the tube; be prepared! Carry a map with you, plan your journeys before you go and keep your wits about you (and your stuff!) at all times! So I'll know for example; how many stops, in what direction, on what line I need to go, before I get there! Simple. I hope!

What else is there to say? Nought I think.

Thought for this day be:
'Hold your head high and keep smiling, cos that's just what a Princess does!'